


Let's See Where We End Up

by meimentomori



Series: 30 Day Fic Writing Challenge [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), First Dates, Fluff, Gay Keith (Voltron), M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-26 17:57:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15006257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meimentomori/pseuds/meimentomori
Summary: keith likes to spend his days after work in the park, in a place where nobody has discovered him for months.until lance gets lost and decides to ask the only person there for help.





	Let's See Where We End Up

**Author's Note:**

> hello!
> 
> i'm starting a thirty day fanfic writing challenge and yes, i know this will probably be the death of me since my hand is already in constant pain from writing literally nothing but i want to get better at writing and i think this will be a good way to do it. i'm making this a series, so all of the fics will be in on place but there is a prompt for every single day.
> 
> today's is getting lost somewhere.
> 
> enjoy!

Taking walks in the park was a daily habit of Keith’s.

Working in a small town, he had easy access to it after his shift was done at the antique shop. It always felt nice to feel the sun on his skin and fresh air in his lungs after being shut in that musty shop for hours each day. Hardly anybody ever came in, which made time go by slower than Keith could stand. He dusted all of the objects, organized them by how old they were, and even tried to repair any that were broken or scrape the rust off of anything metal. He’d always be done far before his shift ended, so he’d slump down in his seat behind the cash register, wondering how he’d struggled through a year of college only to drop out and end up working for a woman who seemed to be too young to run such a shop.

Today had been an especially grueling day. Allura had forgotten to tell him that someone had arranged a drop off. Keith had greeted them with a smile on his face anyways, struggling to keep it that way when he saw a giant taxidermy tiger sitting in the back of an older man’s car. To Keith, he looked like some form of an explorer, with a bright orange mustache and a hat that reminded him of Indiana Jones. The object in question looked old alright, with bits of its fur missing, making obvious bald spots while the eyes looked like they’d been dulled down from years of storage. The stench that came off of it nearly sent Keith into a sneezing fit, with how moldy and dusty it smelled. 

“I hate to see Simba go but there won’t be enough place for him where I’m moving.” The man wrapped his arms lovingly around the stuffed animal’s neck, while Keith stood there, almost certain that Simba had been a lion but not having the heart to correct him. “Find him a good new home for me, alright?”

“We’ll be sure to.” Keith assured him as the man stepped away from his trunk. 

There were practically tears in his eyes. There always were when Keith finally pushed them to part with their beloved collectables. Sometimes they would break down sobbing and not be able to come inside. Other times, they would try to turn away to make the pain easier, only looking up at Keith with that forlorn look as if he’d taken away a part of them they’d never get back once it was inside the shop and out of sight. He couldn’t deny that he had. It was an antique shop, after all, where taking precious items from their owners and selling them was its entire purpose. This man in particular drove off as soon as Keith had the tiger on the curb, leaving him with nobody to help him lug it inside.

That process was what made sitting in the shade of the trees that much better. There was a stump in the middle of a clearing that he’d almost claimed as his own, carving his name and other things into it. No one dared to add anything else onto it if they saw it. Keith liked to think that nobody ever saw it because he had this place all to himself. Today he sat down just like any other day, grabbing a stick and his knife out of his pocket so that he could whittle away at it. He always found himself humming when he worked, whether he wanted to or not. Shards of wood started to gather around his shoes when he heard some sticks crack. His head instantly whipped up, coming face to face with a boy around his age right in front of him.

“Shit.” The boy cursed under his breath. Keith watched as his blue eyes looked down had him, pleadingly. Like whatever he was about to ask was too important for him to say no to. “I don’t mean to bother you but the name’s Lance and I think I’m lost.”

“Clearly.” Keith said, turning his attention back to the stick he was working on. There was hardly anything left at the end now other than a pointed tip no bigger than a pencil led. 

The moment it snapped off, Keith leaned down beside him to grab another one. The thickness of this one would last him longer than the prior stick. It also meant that he’d be at less of a risk for cuts all down his fingers. He’d done it so many times that he’d finally gone out and bought himself a pair of fingerless gloves so that he’d have a better grip on the wood while he was working. That didn’t stop him from slipping up every now and then, leading to a series of band-aids wrapped around his fingers, with extra tape to keep them secure. Lance watched on in silent awe for a moment at the way they danced across the wood, just in time to avoid the sharp edge of the blade. It was mesmerizing, almost soothing him from the panic he’d felt moments before.

“Do you think that you could drop that stick for a second and help me find my way out of here?” Lance asked. He hadn’t intended to come off as rude but, from the look Keith was giving him, the message had clearly been received wrong.

Keith’s hand wrapped around the now skinnier branch, snapping it in half. Some of the bits of wood got stuck in his palm but he brushed them off, too occupied with the nuisance in front of him to care if they’d dug deep enough to cause bleeding or not. “Excuse me?” Keith stood up from his stump and for a moment, Lance thought that he was going to stab him right in the chest. “It’s not my job to help you out of these woods. It’s your fault for finding your way into them in the first place.”

Lance blinked at him. It took him a few moments but he was finally able to understand. “Is this where you come to hideout?”

Keith didn’t know how to answer that question. It wasn’t like he wanted to answer it but, from the newfound look of determination on Lance’s face, he could tell that he would be stuck here a while if he didn’t just explain it from the get-go. Any explanation he could come up with that was honest was far from sounding normal. What was he supposed to tell Lance? A story like this wasn’t the kind of thing you just suddenly told a stranger. He’d tried to say bits of it before, only for strangers to try and comfort him, make him feel better about his life’s situation, which was the last thing that Keith needed right then. He looked back up at Lance, to see him stop midpace in front of him. Keith sighed. Of all the boys who had to get lost here, it just had to be one who had cute brown hair and a nice smile and pretty blue eyes.

“Not exactly.” Keith began, twirling his knife in his hand. He wanted to sit back down but didn’t want it to be awkward, so he settled on leaning against a nearby tree. “I started working at an antique shop down the road. You’ve probably never heard of it but I dropped out of college recently and I needed the money. Work gets frustrating so I found this place one day, since there was a path that looked like nobody had used it in ages, and here I am now. With my home away from home.”

“That’s kinda why I wound up here, too.” Lance admitted. Keith’s mouth opened ever so slightly from shock, which he laughed off. “I know, I know. You’d expect a guy like me to have everything he’s ever wanted, huh?” 

Lance looked over at the stump Keith had been sitting on. It would be just big enough for them to sit back to back. Keith sat down on one side and motioned for Lance to sit on the other. He leaned into Keith’s back hesitantly, not wanting to put his entire weight on him but wanting to feel someone close to him. “Truth is? I’m bisexual. And I just got caught on a date with a guy by one of my closest friends ever. I’ve been trying to call her but she’s not picking up.” 

Keith nodded understandingly. He knew more than anyone else in Lance’s life probably did about how hard it was to be accepted for something like that. Being gay himself, he’d had his fair share of crude remarks thrown his way throughout the years. They’d been the worst in high school, which was why Keith couldn’t wait to get out of there and move onto college. A place where nobody would know his name, where he could start over without a fear of being judged. But the workload ended up coming back to bite him in the end, and he’d left, regretting only the fact that it felt like nothing had changed. Keith could feel Lance’s fingertips brush against the edges of his own as he held onto the sides of the stump. He gripped onto it tighter before he continued. 

“I don’t know if she’s against it or what but I think I fucked up.”

“Did the date go well?” Keith asked, trying to be optimistic for once in his life. 

Lance took in a deep breath. Keith hoped that there weren’t tears in his eyes. He had no clue how to comfort people when they were crying. “No. The guy said he was gonna go get us coffees down the street and never came back.”

“I wish guys would just flat out tell you that they didn’t want to go out with you.” Keith tried to keep his tone the least frustrated as he possibly could but when his memories came back to him, it was hard for the feelings that came with them to stop. “I’m fine if you’re experimenting with your sexuality or whatever but could you at least tell me that before we go out? Or before you decide to leave and make me feel like it’s all my fault.”

“I know!” Lance chuckled. Keith could feel himself start to smile, thankful that Lance couldn’t see it from where he was sitting. “You have some experience with this stuff?”

“You could say that.” Keith stood up, walking over to Lance so that he faced him. He reached his hand out for him to shake. “I’m Keith, by the way. Sorry for not introducing myself earlier.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Lance took his hand, shaking it for a few seconds too long before quickly letting go. “I should be sorry for getting in your way. Looks like today was pretty rough.”

“Just had to haul a tiger in through an entire door by myself.” Keith noticed Lance’s eyes widen so he continued to clarify. “A taxidermy tiger. It was still as heavy as I’d imagine one would be, though.”

“No that’s not…” Lance paused for a moment. “I’m sorry, where did you say that you worked again?”

“The shop’s called Altea.” Keith shrugged at the name, still not entirely sure of how Allura had come up with it. “The owner’s name is Allura. She’s insanely young, only a year or two older than me, and I’m not sure how she managed to build up a shop for herself but she’s pretty nice.”

Lance looked back at him like Keith had just announced that he was pregnant or something. “That’s the friend I was telling you about, the one who walked in on my date?”

Keith was able to put everything together the moment after he’d said that.

Allura was practically always on her phone when the shop was slow. Whether it be texting or talking to someone or liking someone’s Instagram, she busied herself with a social life that Keith liked for her to keep to herself. Despite the amount of times that she always asked him to parties, he’d always say no, even though she said that she knew someone she thought Keith would like. That ‘someone’ must’ve been Lance. How would she have known that he was bi if he hadn’t told her that she was? Maybe Allura had seen Lance flirting with a guy and caught onto the idea. Lance did come off as a very flirtatious person, from the amount of charisma that he carried. Landing a date must’ve been an achievement for him when someone finally took the bait. No wonder he was so bummed out.

“Oh.” Keith said, at a complete loss for words. “Then I don’t think you have much to worry about.”

“I don’t?”

“Not at all.” Keith sat down on the ground in front of him. It felt too awkward to have such a personal conversation back to back. “If anything, I think she was disappointed that she didn’t get to set you up with me. She always talks about you, you know. Even while she’s talking to you.”

“I’ll have to tell her to stop slacking off at work and help out her only employee.” Lance grinned. Keith noticed how he shut his eyes when he did, so that all you noticed was how joyous the expression on his face was. He opened them after a second, taking some time to look Keith up and down, eyeing him up like a judge in a beauty pageant. “She didn’t give you enough credit. You’re a lot hotter when you’re not being described over the phone.”

“Thanks?” Keith shoved his knife deep in its holster. He pulled at the ends of his hair anxiously. “I’m kinda shocked that you have a hard time getting dates. You seem like you’d be really popular with everyone, including the boys.”

Keith felt awkward being here now that this revelation had come into play. A part of him didn’t mind it, though. It was that part that was winning over his legs desire to get up, run away, and not take a second to look back. Allura hadn’t been wrong in the least. Lance was attractive, in that sort of ‘I can have anyone and anything I want’ kind of way. He exuded confidence, while seeming down to earth at the same time. Keith had been honest when he said that he seemed like he should be popular with everyone because he should’ve been. There wasn’t a reason that a single person should have a reason to come out and say no to him, let alone, ditch him in the middle of a date. Even Keith, with the way he was, noticed how people looked at him when he went out. Girls had always been into that bad boy thing that he gave off, even though Keith was far from it. 

“Who says I have a hard time getting dates?” Lance winked. Keith couldn’t help but roll his eyes, though he had to admit, anyone who passed down a guy like him had to be blind. “People just think I’m another flirty pretty boy with nothing more than too much of an ego. But it’s better to have that going for you than nothing, huh?”

“You’re not usually this open with people, are you?” Keith asked skeptically, hoping that it wasn’t too personal for him to answer.

Lance grabbed one of the splinters of wood, rolling it between his fingers. “What gave it away?”

“Nothing. I just…” Keith tried to think of a way to phrase the next part without coming off as rude. That was always his downfall when people tried to get close to him. He sounded like he didn’t care, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. “It seems like you hide a lot from everyone you know, that’s all.”

“Isn’t that just human nature?” Lance threw the piece of wood. “I don’t know anyone who doesn’t hide at least something about themselves from everyone.”

“You do it differently than I do, though.” Keith replied. “I push everyone away when I talk to them, which I never mean to but, I think it’s better to not get close to anyone ever. That way, if they ever find out the truth, it won’t even matter.”

Lance looked like he wanted to say something, but stopped, leaving them to sit with nothing more than birds chirping and leaves rustling to keep the silence at bay. Keith appreciated that. The last thing he wanted to do was get into a deeper conversation than he already was with Lance. It did feel good for him to get things off of his chest for once. Keith kept in contact with his older brother, Shiro, but talking to him felt stiffer. There was always something Keith hid from him, whether it be the fact that he was barely making his apartment’s rent every month or that he wasn’t keeping in contact with anyone he’d met at college. It had been hard enough to tell him that he was dropping out. Shiro had flipped out enough then, he would practically come and drag him back home if he found out how Keith was doing now.

“If you want me to get you out of here now, I understand.” Keith stood up, holding out his hand so that he could pull Lance up with him. “The path’s just over this way. You’ll have to stay right behind me so you don’t get lost, got that?”

“Roger that, Keith.” Lance saluted him, stretching his arms above his head. “But you don’t have to, you know, leave me alone after you do. I’d actually enjoy some company right now.”

“I can get us out of here but if you want to go anywhere else, you’re gonna have to find it by yourself.” 

Keith motioned for Lance to follow him but instead, Lance found his way to his side and slipped his hand into Keith’s. “It’s the easiest way for us to stay close.”

Keith turned his head to the side so that Lance couldn’t see his blushing face, pulling him along as he started to walk. He knew this path like the back of his hand. He practically had to, since it was so faint. He’d forgotten that he was holding Lance’s hand after a while. There was something about the peacefulness of these woods that melted every worry away of Keith’s. It was like a magic spell, finding its way into his mind, clearing out all of his worries in merely a few seconds. It felt sometimes as if this place had found him rather than him finding it. Like the way that his legs carried him was dictated by this siren’s call, one that promised genuine safety instead of a false sense of security as it seemed every thing in his life offered him. 

They were out of the woods before Keith could even start to think about how long he’d been holding Lance’s hand. He couldn’t think about it since, as soon as Lance had a second to look around, he was pulling Keith to the exit of the park. They walked down the main street of the town, admiring the sunset and the way that the lights of shops flickered on one by one. Lance’s eyes were brighter than anybody’s Keith had ever seen before. Nobody was ever this happy to spend time with him. They hadn’t been Keith was no older than six years old, anyway. It was a new experience to have someone laughing with him, not at him, while making Keith want to smile too.

Allura might’ve been more right about Lance than Keith thought.

They stopped in front of a cafe. Keith was about to give Lance a bit of a glare when he noticed something out of the ordinary. Through the window, he caught a glimpse of arcade machines. He stepped a bit closer, Lance staying by his side, and placed his free hand on the glass. There were all sorts of old games in there. Pac-Man, Street Fighter, Donkey Kong. Keith could even see Dance Dance Revolution when he stood on his tiptoes. Lance was waving to some of the people inside. A group of them around their age who’d started giggling and whispering. Keith stopped what he was doing and looked back down at the ground, suddenly embarrassed about getting so overexcited. 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Lance asked, concerned. He lowered his face so that he could see Keith’s own, frowning when he saw how upset he looked. “They weren’t laughing at you, I swear. They were laughing at me.”

Keith stood up straight and tilted his head. “They were?”

“Yeah.” Lance scratched the back of his own, finally letting go of Keith’s hand. “I’ll prove it to you when we get inside.” He opened the door, holding it as he waited for Keith to go inside. “Come on! I can’t hold this all night!”

Keith gave in and stepped inside, instantly noticing how alive the cafe felt. He’d walked down this street countless times to get to and from work. How had this passed him by? It had everything that Keith could’ve ever wanted in somewhere to hang out. The music didn’t remind him of elevator music but it was overly pop, either. It was some perfect mix in the middle, with low bass notes and good lead singers. The kind of music that Keith liked to listen to while he worked that Allura called ‘too depressing for her shop’. The tables weren’t that filled, either. Keith breathed a sigh of relief. Crowded places were one of the things he hated the most, so any chance he could take to avoid them, he would.

“This place is awesome!” Keith said after Lance sat them down at a table. He sat down on the side away from the people who had laughed at Lance. One of them tapped him on the shoulder as soon as he’d sat down. “How long have you been coming here?”

“Since my first day of college this year.” Lance chuckled, trying to swat the hand away. When it persisted, he cursed under his breath at it, trying to keep his face as welcoming for Keith as he possibly could. “Excuse me for a second. I’ve got some idiots to deal with over here.” He pushed a menu towards Keith before he left. “Order whatever you want, it’s on me!”

Keith tried his best to focus on the menu while Lance was away. He couldn’t fully, so he glanced up every once in a while, trying to memorize the faces of whoever he was talking to. There seemed to be four people, though he could only make out the faces of two. A bigger, gentler face that belonged to who Keith caught on to be Hunk. The girl sitting across from him, with glasses and hair that shot out in all sorts of places, seemed to be Pidge. They were teasing Lance about something that Keith couldn’t understand. What he could see was the way that Lance grew more and more fed up as time let on, trying to compensate for the clear sorrow in his eyes with snarky remarks right back at them. He waved goodbye to them after a while, so Keith stuck his nose back in the menu, hoping that Lance hadn’t seen him spying.

“Sorry about that!” He took his own menu and started flipping through it, covering his face with it while he did. “Did you find anything that you want?”

“I think I’ll just get a black coffee.” Keith tried sitting up a little bit taller to see if he could peek over Lance’s menu to check on him, but it did nothing more than make Lance slouch in his seat more. “What about you?”

There was a pause for a minute. Keith could see Lance’s elbow move past the edge of his menu, like he was wiping at his eyes. He had to urge to go over to that table and ask them what exactly they had joked about with Lance, but it seemed like it would only make the situation worse. “Peppermint hot chocolate.”

“But it’s not even Christmas.”

“It doesn’t have to be Christmas for you to want to want something that reminds you of it.” Lance finally rested the menu down as their server approached them. “Hey, Nyma! Long time, no see!”

“Lance!” The girl, with her long, blonde hair done up in pigtails, reached down to give Lance a hug. Keith wondered how many servers knew Lance by name. “I’m so glad you came in during my shift!”

“Me too, Nyma.” Lance’s eyes were slightly puffy, Keith noticed. They weren’t shining like they had been earlier, which broke his heart slightly. Keith didn’t want to think about how many emotions Lance was able to cover up with just a smile and the wave of his hand. “I won’t keep you long. Just a peppermint hot chocolate for me and a black coffee for Keith over here.”

“Keith, huh?” Nyma raised an eyebrow at Lance after she’d scribbled down their order. Then turned to Keith, a smirk crossing her lips as she took their menus. “Well, it’s lovely to meet you. Thanks for keeping Lance company tonight.”

“No problem.” Keith mumbled, practically inaudible. 

With a satisfied nod she turned away, heels clicking against the wood floor as she made her way behind the counter. Lance had begun to drum his fingers against the table, watching as a boy behind the counter made their drinks. Keith felt like reaching out across and taking Lance’s hand in his own, to ease him into a better state of mind. It didn’t make sense for him to be nervous but, as he remembered how harsh the tones of the voices at the table behind them had sounded in their mockery, Keith realized that this was how he distracted himself so that he wouldn’t spill his heart out to whoever would listen. There wasn’t an easy way for Keith to start a conversation that didn’t seem too personal, or too out of the blue, so he waited until their drinks came, asking Lance after a few minutes how his hot chocolate was.

“Tastes just like Christmas.” Lance raised his mug up in sort of a mock toast before taking another sip, getting whipped cream on his nose. When Keith started to laugh into his own mug, Lance asked, “What’s so funny?”

“You’ve got some whipped cream there.” Keith motioned to his own face, trying his best to mimic exactly where it was on himself. After a few failed attempts of Lance trying to wipe it off with the back of his hand, Keith grabbed a napkin and leaned over the table. “Here. Let me get it for you.”

Lance flinched at the paper as it brushed against his cheek, biting his lip in an attempt to keep himself from squirming away. Keith crushed it into a ball and placed it next to his saucer afterwards, taking another sip of his coffee. The way that this place made it was perfect. Not overly strong but just strong enough that it brought Keith out of his shell a bit more. Like the caffeine was already kicking in after just a few sips. His demeanor loosened, rolling his shoulders back as a second wave of energy hit him without warning. There was not a chance in the world that he was going to be able to sleep tonight after this but, there hadn’t been many times where he could ever sleep through the night, so it would be easy to deal with. As long as Allura didn’t notices his extra yawns, it would be fine.

And it would give just enough of a boost to seem more alive for Lance.

“What about you?” Lance asked, nodding at Keith’s cup. “Good coffee?”

“Some of the best.” Keith replied. He set the cup back down on the saucer before he continued. “We can move to a different table, if you want.”

“What?” Lance’s eyebrows furrowed in concern, stopping himself from raising his mug up to his lips midway. “Why?”

“You just seem, I don’t know…”

Keith had to take a moment to find the right thing to say. Or to ask. He abandoned deciding to talk about whoever it was that Lance was talking to earlier completely right then. If they made him that upset, they would just make Keith that much more upset. He hadn’t had a friend in ages and along came Lance into his life, willing to hang out with him, when all that Keith had done for him was help him out of the woods. He even bought him a cup of coffee, for crying out loud. It might’ve just been an act of repayment but it meant the world to Keith, even if he’d never tell Lance that. But there was something else off about Lance. Something that made him unable to sit still, to try and look everywhere else but at him. Keith knew then what he had to do, to make this go by smoother.

“Is this a date?” Keith didn’t want to ask, but he felt like he should. So that Lance wouldn’t freak out if he took things too far.

Lance swallowed. “Does it seem like one?”

“From how nervous you’re acting, yeah.” Keith grabbed a napkin to wipe up the drips of coffee that he’d accidentally spilled onto their table. “It does.”

“Tonight doesn’t have to be one if you don’t want it to be.” Lance sighed. Though now, he was back to something that Keith could compare to how he imagined the true Lance to be. A confident, flirty, fresh faced college student out in the world, looking for love. “But I’d like to take you out on one sometime, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“I’d love that.” Keith smiled, taking another look around the room. “So this is your home away from home.”

“Yup.” Lance gave him a lopsided smile, which evened out as Keith grabbed onto Lance’s hand, stroking the back of it with his thumb. “You like it here?”

“I love it.” Keith chuckled. The group behind them was peering over their booth, trying to catch a glimpse of what was going on between them. Keith glared at them until they stopped, his look softening when he faced Lance again. “Well, minus those idiots over there.”

“They thought that you were the guy from earlier.” Lance took a spoon and began stirring his hot chocolate aimlessly, despite there being nothing he needed to add to it. “When I explained to them that you weren’t, they sorta made fun of me for it. Said I couldn’t keep a steady partner if I tried.”

“How about we see where the two of us go, yeah?” Lance looked up at Keith, eyes full of hope. “If you’ll let me share your home away from home.”

“Our home away from home.” Lance corrected, taking Keith’s other hand. In between them was a vase of roses, possibly the only thing keeping them from kissing right then. It was a good thing, the both of them thought. It would be better to take this slow, one step at a time, so that they didn’t jinx it before it had time to begin. “And yeah. Let’s see where we end up.”

The two of them chatted the night away. Allura walked past the cafe on her way back to the shop from Shiro’s place, to make sure that Keith had locked up for the night and check on the tiger he’d promised to be extra careful with. She had to do a double take when she found Keith and Lance sitting right by the window, cheeks flushed and fingers intertwined, like they’d been dating for months. Before she could stop herself, she snapped a picture of the two of them, sending it to each of them separately. After they parted ways for the night, they each checked their phones, one at home in bed, the other trying to ignore their roommate’s loud music. They couldn’t help but smile at what Allura had written underneath, adding some hearts to make it that much sweeter.

‘I told you, I knew you two would be perfect for each other all along.’


End file.
